Tuesday, May 19, 2009

In today's New York Times David Brooks quotes research to show that the most successful CEOs are not visionaries, but dull, detail-oriented and process-driven. Yet in today's Wall Street Journal, Gary Hamel perpetuates the idea that successful CEOs are charismatic visionaries.

In my experience the CEOs who are most charismatic tend to become insulated from the world and long term David Brooks is more right than Gary Hamel. Perhaps we would each like to believe that CEOs are all "big thinkers," but we may be fooling ourselves.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

So KFC puts out a coupon for a free meal - on Oprah even. Then it changes its mind. Of yes, you can drive to a KFC, hand in the coupon and they will mail you another one. Clearly misredemption has been a problem, but they ask you to spend time and money on gas to effectively trade in the original coupon for a new one. Frankly, it seems to be a poorly thought out promotion in the first place, and en even more harmful solution. I would have expected better from KFC.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Whether in doing business, making friends, or finding a job, introductions are the lifeblood of social commerce. Some people take short-cuts so much that they are virtually ineffective, or even harmful. Some of the key guidelines for making introductions are:

Understand each person well enough to determine who they would most benefit from meeting. Don't expect them to tell you - they don't know whom you know.

Make the introductions "win-win." Try to make sure that each can get something from it.

Make "warm" introductions. Do not simply ask one party to contact a second using your name, but introduce them - whether in person, on the phone, or by email. You only win if the introduction is successful.

If using LinkedIn, use the phone as well to determine what is the best way to introduce - some people respond better to phone than email, or email better than to LinkedIn.

Follow up. Was the introduction successful? Was one party difficult, rude or simply unresponsive?

Friday, May 01, 2009

The job search service, JobSerf, has been tracking online postings monthly since January 2008. The index started to fall early last year, a fall which accelerated in July. The fall continues, but early indications are that April could be the first month in a while which shows any improvement. While only about 10% of executive jobs are filled through online postings, this is an indicator. It means that since more people have been chasing fewer jobs, it has been much more difficult to get hired. If this changes, both job-seekers and employers need to be ready.

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About Me

Richard has grown multiple businesses, some from scratch, some already establishes, to much bigger profit and market value.

Richard has over
thirty years in leading Fortune 500 and much smaller companies to
success as a member of top management in Fortune 500 companies and adviser to
them as consultant and Board member.

Prior to
founding Max Brand Equity, Richard started his career in marketing at Procter
& Gamble, later becoming a Division Head at Mars, Inc, CMO at US West and BMC
Software as well as President of Reliant Energy. He was also a partner in two
respected consulting firms, where he advised top management of Global 2000
companies. He has been on the Board of eight highly successful companies,
including four start-ups.

Richard has
focused on initiating and leading change to achieve successful results in
global organizations in changing markets. From Consumer Packaged goods to
communications and high-tech he has created new paradigms which have changed
the market structure and built substantial revenue and profit growth.

Most recently,
Richard created the consumer “broadband” market while at US West/Comcast, the
most successful retail energy business at Reliant Energy, new “dialog-based” CRM approaches at several companies as well as BMC software, as well as pioneering in
multi-channel and direct to the consumer marketing. He grew market value of
three public corporations by several-fold in periods of around two years each.
The firm focuses on excellence in execution - Big Idea to Successful Implementation
in Seven Steps

Richard has
focused on initiating and leading change to achieve successful results in
global organizations in changing markets. From Consumer Packaged goods to
communications and high-tech he has created new paradigms which have changed
the market structure and built substantial revenue and profit growth.

Richard has
grown and led several large global organizations. Much of the success of the
organizations was built on his definition of tasks and responsibilities as well
as structure and communications. He has lived and worked in ten countries and
four continents, achieving great success in multiple markets.

He has regularly
achieved success for many companies, in multiple categories, both as a manager
and as a consultant. He is an acknowledged expert, having been a published
author and public speaker over many years, and is sought out as an interviewee
in many areas.

Richard
graduated from the University of Cambridge with a
Bachelors degree in Chemistry, Physics, and Math. He went on to earn a Masters from Cambridge
in Chemical Engineering.